"Several Democrats rallied behind Rep. John Lewis on Saturday as an "American hero" and revered civil rights champion after Donald Trump slammed him as "all talk, talk, talk" ahead of the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Republicans stayed mostly silent amid the back and forth ó the latest to highlight Trump's willingness to take on anyone, from war heroes to celebrities, whom he believes slighted him. But challenging Lewis, a top leader of the 1963 March on Washington, could end up pushing more Democrats to skip Friday's presidential inauguration in protest."

Above link to nbc article has numerous tweets by Pelosi and other Dems

"President-elect Donald Trump said tonight that China should keep the U.S. Navy underwater drone that had been seized in international waters in the South China Sea. The Pentagon said Saturday that China agreed to return the drone.

"We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!" Trump tweeted this evening.

The incident had sparked a diplomatic protest from the United States demanding the return of the drone, which is used for oceanographic research.

China Agrees to Give Back US Underwater Drone Seized in South China Sea
Before it was revealed that China would return the drone to the United States, Trump took to Twitter to call the drone seizure an "unprecedented act."

"A pipeline leak has spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into a North Dakota creek roughly two and a half hours from Cannon Ball, where protesters are camped out in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes, as well as environmentalists from around the country, have fought the pipeline project on the grounds that it crosses beneath a lake that provides drinking water to native Americans. They say the route beneath Lake Oahe puts the water source in jeopardy and would destroy sacred land.

North Dakota officials estimate more than 176,000 gallons of crude oil leaked from the Belle Fourche Pipeline into the Ash Coulee Creek. State environmental scientist Bill Suess says a landowner discovered the spill on Dec. 5 near the city of Belfield, which is roughly 150 miles from the epicenter of the Dakota Access pipeline protest camps."

It's not yet clear why electronic monitoring equipment didn't detect the leak, Owen told the Asssociated Press.
Owen said the pipeline was shut down immediately after the leak was discovered. The pipeline is buried on a hill near Ash Coulee creek, and the "hillside sloughed," which may have ruptured the line, she said."

"The CIA has concluded that Russia mounted a covert intelligence operation to influence the U.S. election in an effort to help Donald Trump win, a congressional official knowledgeable on the matter told NBC News.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed senators on the latest intelligence in a closed-door meeting last week, and he described the latest findings on the intentions of the Russian government with regard to the hacks and other interference in the U.S. presidential election, according to the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the intelligence.

A Washington Post report published online Friday night first described how the intelligence community has reached a "consensus" that Russia intervened in the presidential election to help Trump win ó not just try to sow chaos and undermine the electoral process. The New York Times confirmed the story, as has NBC News."

"As far as anyone can tell, Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House ó and the leader of whatís left of the Republican establishment ó isnít racist or authoritarian. He is, however, doing all he can to make a racist authoritarian the most powerful man in the world. Why? Because then he could privatize Medicare and slash taxes on the wealthy.
And that, in brief, tells you what has happened to the Republican Party, and to America.

This has been an election in which almost every week sees some longstanding norm in U.S. political life get broken. We now have a major-party candidate who refuses to release his tax returns, despite huge questions about his business dealings. He constantly repeats claims that are totally false, like his assertion that crime is at record highs (itís actually just a bit off historic lows). He stands condemned by his own words as a sexual predator. And thereís much, much more.

Any one of these things would in the past have been considered disqualifying in a presidential candidate. But leading Republicans just shrug. And they celebrated when James Comey, the director of the F.B.I., broke with policy to lay a heavy thumb on the election scales; if Hillary Clinton wins nonetheless, they have made it clear that they will try to block any Supreme Court nomination, and thereís already talk of impeachment hearings. About what? Theyíll find something."

What was the purpose of this assault on the implicit rules and understandings that we need to make democracy work? Well, when Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1995, he was trying to, guess what, privatize Medicare. The rage against Bill Clinton partly reflected the fact that he raised taxes modestly on the wealthy.
In other words, Republican leaders have spent the past couple of decades doing exactly what the likes of Mr. Ryan are doing now: trashing democratic norms in pursuit of economic benefits for their donor class."

I knew Natasha Stoynoff had asked People mag to be taken off coverage of Trump and told several people about the assault. But she did not tell her editor. In this interesting article, he explains why he thinks she did not tell him, admits he would not have wanted a story to be about the reporter rather than the subject and he would not have publicly exposed Trump, but would have contacted his publicist and made a mutual truce instead.

"For a second there, I imagined a scene of Ben Bradlee-esque outrage, calling out the swine for his behavior and striking a blow for reporters everywhere. But in reality, I would probably have simply killed the story that Stoynoff had gone to Palm Beach to report. I would have then called Trumpís public relations operatives, told them about their bossís bad behavior and agreed to a truce of mutual silence. In the end, few people would have learned of the event, weíd have had to fill a few more pages in the next issue, and Trump would have avoided any public embarrassment.

News organizations are devoted to the idea that unless something truly gruesome happens during the course of reporting, the subjects, not the reporters, are the real story. They instinctively feel pressure to absent themselves from the narrative. Itís the right instinct, but in the case of sexual assault, whose violations are not always visible, reporters face a terrible choice. No wonder Stoynoff didnít feel able to confide in me or her other editors in 2005. The ghastly truth is that had Trump punched her, our course of action would have been much clearer. Instead, he exploited power, privilege and media sclerosis to his own sweaty ends."

Federal investigators believe Russian hackers were behind cyberattacks on a contractor for Florida's election system that may have exposed the personal data of Florida voters, according to US officials briefed on the probe.

The hack of the Florida contractor comes on the heels of hacks in Illinois, in which personal data of tens of thousands of voters may have been stolen, and one in Arizona, in which investigators now believe the data of voters was likely exposed.
Election cyber threats: More states request DHS assistance
Election cyber threats: More states request DHS help
The FBI, in the coming days, is preparing to provide updated guidance to state elections officials around the US aiming to help them spot suspicious activity on their computer networks. Several states have reported attempted scans of their computer systems, which often is a precursor to a breach.